Every weekday morning, Precedent scours the headlines to find stories likely to be today's hot topics.

• Lawyer Edwin Coq is no longer defending the U.S. missionaries accused of kidnapping Haitian children. Jorge Puello, a lawyer in the Dominican Republic, says Coq was fired on suspicion of “extortion.” Coq claims the $60,000 he was requesting was his fee, and that he resigned over a dispute about payment. [New York Times]
• Public Mobile has asked the Federal Court to look into Ottawa’s decision not to release the decision documents relating to the approval of Globalive, the foreign-owned company behind Wind Mobile. [Globe and Mail]
• Pakistan’s Supreme Court is considering creating a third gender identity for the country’s khusra — a wide-ranging group that includes transgendered people, transsexuals and hermaphrodites. [Toronto Star]
• Michael Geist: The arbitration clause in Dell’s computer contracts was overruled by the Ontario Court of Appeal, which has allowed a class action to proceed. [Toronto Star]
• Gretchen Rubin, author of bestseller The Happiness Project and a former lawyer , talks about the epiphany that changed her career path and her life. [Globe and Mail]

Yesterday, Dexter Manley's wife was reunited with the Super Bowl ring he won as a member of the 1983 Washington Redskins. A timely article from the Washington Post tells the tale of the ring, which passed between the retired NFLer and his former employer and friend, prominent Houston lawyer John O’Quinn (who died in a car crash last fall).

Manley fell from grace in the early 90s due to a drug addiction, and pawned his ring for $5,000 in 1998. O’Quinn, a highly successful trial attorney, bought it back from the pawn shop for three times that price a year later, and soon showed it to its rightful owner — who by that time was working as a researcher at O’Quinn’s firm.

Manley asked his friend to hang onto the ring for safekeeping, and O’Quinn took him literally — to the point that O’Quinn began to evade Manley’s follow-up questions about the status of the ring. After O’Quinn’s death, Manley called his friend’s executor and eventually tracked down his ring: it was in a safe deposit box, along with explicit instructions detailing the conditions that must be met in order for Manley to have it returned: his wife, Lydia, had to swear that her husband was clean.

Earlier this week, Lydia got the chance to do just that, and retrieve the ring, which she'll return to Manley next week. Right now, he's in Florida celebrating this Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV, and she's in Las Vegas on her annual Super Bowl weekend getaway.

Photo by Ericka Clouther

As a Jew, I’ve been exposed to anti-semitism only a handful of times in my life. At camp in Georgia’s deep south, there were a few minor run-ins with Confederate flag–bearing folk who mouthed off about the wonders of the local Ku Klux Klan. In Poland, minutes before meeting the Rabbi from the local synagogue, we learned that he was running late because some skinheads had sprayed him with Mace on his way to work.

My grandparents were Holocaust survivors, so I know in my blood how harmless these incidents are compared to the horrors of World War II. What contemporary instances of anti-semitism do remind me of, though, are that remnants of past thinking still exist, which is why it is so important to be educated about historical discrimination. If we know better, we do better.

In hope of both knowing and doing a little bit better, I’m trying to take advantage of Black History Month this year by actually participating in some of the events going on around the city. First up, the Association of African-Canadian Artists exhibits its Beyond the Rhythm show in City Hall’s rotunda between 8:30 and 4:00 every day until February 10.

And, even though I wouldn’t normally venture out and up into North York from my humble east side abode for a short (two-hour) event aimed at young people, this Saturday will prove to be an exception. North York Central Library will play host to spoken word poet Al St. Louis and model Stacey McKenzie of Canada’s Next Top Model fame (yes, I am a fan of Top Model, and no, I am not embarrassed!). Stacey and Al will lecture on their struggles as African-Canadians trying to make it to the top. If I had kids, I would bring them here for some inspirational education.

After the jump: Details on three concerts in celebration of one of the most influencial musicians of the 20th century.

Every weekday morning, Precedent scours the headlines to find stories likely to be today's hot topics.

• Editorial: Stephen Harper's lack of response to the Supreme Court's decision on Omar Khadr exposes his government's "indifference to human rights." [Toronto Star]
• The Association of Corporate Council's Value Index is now accessible to law firms . [National Post — Legal Post]
• The U.S. Justice Department noted that Google's plan to digitize millions of books fails to address copyright and antitrust issues, including the provision that authors must opt out of the program, instead of proactively granting permission for their works to be included. [Globe and Mail]
• Blakes is predicting a slow recovery in the M&A sector this year, and has launched a new microsite to track trends. [National Post — Legal Post]
• An Australian Federal Court judge ruled yesterday that Internet Service Provider iiNet is not responsible for movies downloaded illegally from its servers. [Globe and Mail]
• Suspended California lawyer Patience Nooney Van Zandt faces charges of burglary, possession of stolen property and vandalism after allegedly taking a half dozen yogurt cups from a locked fridge in a hotel. [ABA Journal]
  

It's hardly Business as Usual these days for the band Men at Work.

A Globe story we linked to in this morning's Court Reporter tells the tale of how the 80s group is being accused of sneaking the melody from the children's tune "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree" into the #1 hit song "Down Under."

If you're singing both songs to yourself and wondering how this is even possible, check out the mashed-up comparison in the video embedded above. (It starts at 0:44, after some preamble on the case.) As the video demonstrates, the part of "Down Under" that's zeroed in on in this claim is not the hook, nor the verse melody. It's the instrumental break.

Can this whole thing be chalked up to karmic payback for putting a flute solo in a pop song, then? If so, the "payback" could end up being substantial; the band and its label, EMI, are now in mediation with the holders of the copyright on "Kookabura," who are said to be requesting up to 60 percent of the money "Down Under," which was first released in 1981. That would mean that Men at Work could be on the hook for millions.

Both sides will be back in court on February 25.

More than once, I have discovered — at my peril — that Valentines Day can creep up with very little warning. So this week, I am devoting the Short Cellar to the most romantic meal of all: fresh oysters on the half shell with chilled white wine. It is exotic, aphrodisiacal and surprisingly cheap.
 
It’s also an easy meal that you can prepare (and consume) virtually anywhere — your kitchen, a dorm room, a hotel, a romantically lit holding cell. You can find some decent instructions for shucking the oyster online, or watch an instructional video. I prefer my oysters with just a drop of lemon juice so that their natural flavour is preserved, but you can also garnish them with freshly grated horseradish, chili-sauce or shallot vinegar.
 
Fresh oysters can be found at restaurants and shops all over Toronto, but some of the best can be nabbed at places like Mike’s at the St. Laurence Market or from an oyster bar (like Starfish or Oyster Boy). An oyster like the delicious Malpeque goes for around $10-12/dozen at the Market. Unlike a lot of shellfish, oysters can live for a couple weeks in your fridge’s vegetable crisper (layered between damp sheets of newspaper), so don’t be afraid to get them a few days in advance.
 
What kind of wine matches oysters? That depends on what kind of oysters you’ve selected.

After the jump: Matching your mollusks with the perfect bottle of white.

Every weekday morning, Precedent scours the headlines to find stories likely to be today's hot topics.

• Defence Minister Lawrence Cannon said yesterday that the Canadian government will not seek repatriation for Omar Khadr. [Globe and Mail]
• Lawsuits and class actions continue to pile up, on both sides of the border, against embattled automaker Toyota. [ABA Journal]
• Ed Chernoff, the lead attorney on the team representing Dr. Conrad Murray, says that his client could be arraigned tomorrow on charges related to the death of Michael Jackson. [Globe and Mail]
• Corruption charges against OPP chief Julian Fantino were thrown out of court yesterday. [Toronto Star]
• Christie Blatchford: The low-key start to the trial in the shooting of high school student Jordan Manners is a classic example of Canadian justice — “where even such a shocking killing is rendered sterile, the poor victim barely given a nod, all in the name, presumably, of a prosecution so measured that no one will ever again be wrongfully convicted — or at least not because a Crown attorney thundered inappropriately and inflamed a jury.” [Globe and Mail]
• The Cornell mystery continues: why are applications to the law school up a full 50 percent? Do people really want to be just like Andy Bernard? [Wall Street Journal — Law Blog]
• Australian band Men at Work may be ordered to pay millions to the copyright holders of “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree” after an Austrialian Federal Court judge ruled that there is a “sufficient degree of objective similarity” between the children’s song and the 80s band’s biggest hit, “Down Under.” [Globe and Mail]
  

Every weekday morning, Precedent scours the headlines to find stories likely to be today's hot topics.

• The mounting case against Toyota has the potential to be the largest consumer product class action ever, but some lawyers wonder if the payoff will really be as big as it seems. [Globe and Mail — The Law Page]
• Jim Middlemiss:
  -- Rio Tinto’s experiment with outsourcing legal work to India has so far been a success — the company’s saving money, and junior counsel in Canada are getting management experience
  -- CGCA nominations are open
  -- now that the asset-backed commercial paper money is starting to flow, regulators need to figure out how to spend it. [National Post — Legal Post]
• The International Criminal Court will rule a second time on whether Sudan President Omar al-Bashir is guilty of genocide in Darfur. [Globe and Mail]
• Christie Blatchford: OPP chief Julian Fantino wrote 27 emails in eight days about Caledonia activist Gary McHale before arresting him in December 2007.
• The Commission on Judicial Performance criticized a now-retired California judge as biased and abusive after he ordered that an attorney who settled a class action be paid in $10 women’s apparel coupons. [Toronto Star]
• The Quebec press is especially adamant that the Federal government should now feel compelled to repatriate Omar Khadr. [Globe and Mail]
• Bar Talk:
  -- The Obama-Alito “feud” is lighting up law blogs across the U.S.;
  -- Spectrum LLP, a new human resources law practice, will be run by managing partner Chris Brown, formerly of Osler, along with one-time Blakes lawyer Scott Sweatman. [Globe and Mail — The Law Page]